Ken Livingstone has criticised LBC for axing his morning radio show after a row over his claim Adolf Hitler supported a Jewish state, claiming he has been “sacked for telling the truth”.

The former London mayor said LBC wanted a “boring” presenter and as a “capitalist” station they should have realised the boost in listening figures he helped create was good for advertising.

Mr Livingstone has been told his contract for a Saturday morning politics show alongside former Tory minister David Mellor will not be renewed.

The decision came after the left-wing former Labour MP was suspended by his party and became embroiled in a heated public row with one of its backbenchers over the comments.

Mr Livingstone has not appeared in his weekly programme in recent weeks because of impartiality rules ahead of the EU referendum, with political journalist Michael Crick standing in.

However it has now emerged he will not be returning to the show after the vote and his contract will not be renewed, ending an eight-year career with the station.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Livingstone acknowledge the recent row over his Hitler comments may have played a part and hit out at the station for bowing to pressure.

“They decided not to renew the contract, which is odd because when me and David [Mellor] started doing it they had 50,000 listeners, now they have 300,000,” he said.

“They are overwhelmed with advertising. You would have assumed a good capitalist would want to carry on making a profit.”

“They just think there’s a lot of controversy surrounding me. But that’s actually one of the reasons people listen to the programme. They want someone boring who can bring the listening figures down.”

Mr Livingstone added that he had been “sacked for telling the truth”.

It comes after Mr Livingstone was stripped of his Labour Party membership pending an inquiry and faced calls to resign from his radio job over comments he made about the Nazis and Israel last month.

Ken Livingstone on LBCCredit:
LBC/LBC

Defending a Labour MP who apologised after suggesting Israeli Jews should be moved to America, Mr Livingstone played down the scale of anti-Semitism in the party and questioned the criticism.

He said: “Let's remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.”

The comments sparked a chaotic 24 hours as Mr Livingstone repeatedly defended the comments, was confronted in a heated exchange with Labour MP John Mann and eventually suspended from the party. The following morning on his LBC show he refused to apologise 20 times for the remarks.

An LBC spokesman said: “Ken Livingstone is not currently presenting on LBC and will not be returning to the station at the end of his contract.”